NORTH CAROLINA

Highest 1909-13 pre-state plate known:  #6674

1913 plates issued to new registrations only.  1913/14 registration

list contains passenger numbers 7928, 8512 and 9745.

Truck began 1920.  360,000 ordered 6-30-26.

6-30-13  6826 -  7797     (972 S)               6-30-20   140 - 106134

6-30-14   109 -  7663,  Dealer 8035 - 8229      6-30-21   319 - 130-217

         8522 - 12438  (11,472*S)               6-30-22    22 - 213-097*

6-30-15    57 - 16345  (Dealer "D" prefix)      6-30-23     1 - 184216

6-30-16    19 - 24950*                          6-30-24    38 - 261-993

6-30-17   206 - 39701                           6-30-25    38 - 319-360*

6-30-18   369 - 64-914*                         6-30-26    38 - 347-354

6-30-19    22 - 79-610*

HORSEPOWER   6-30-27     1927       1928       1929       1930       1931

35+           8001 A    75-023A   A500-780   100-965A   101-115A   100 1 780

              9946 A    75-270A                         102-763A   101 1 848

31 - 34      12-001B    78-863B   B504-401   102-387B   103-463B   105 2 695

             12-197B              B507-308   104-199B   106-661B   108 2 585

26 - 30      18-001C    83-396C   C511-261   105-172C   112-742C   115 3 582

             45-615C   120-149C   C568-017   142-718C   167-456C   193 3 381

 1 - 25      48-001E   151-047E   E100-861   149-277    201-143    200 4 442

            369-442E   495-478E   E499-218   555-649    598-778    482 4 743

26 - 30     400-001C                         565-201C   602-200C

            420-911C                         579-780C   608-792C

31 - 34                                      584-124B

TOTAL BY CLASS   6-30-27     1927      1928      1929      1930      1931

35+                1,946       248         1         1     1,649     1,069

31-34                197         1     2,908     1,814     3,199     2,891

26-30             48,526    36,754    56,757    52,127    61,308    77,800

 1-25            321,442   344,432   398,358   406,373   397,636   282,302

GRAND TOTAL      372,111   381,435   458,024   460,315   463,537   364,062

6-30-27:  20,000 more "C" class initially ordered when it was learned that

          the new Dodge cars would be in this class.  The division was 1-24

          and 25-30 H.P. this year only.

1931, 1933-36:  "1" flanked by small triangles; "2" to "4" are inside box.

1932    100-001 - 414-564  (No codes or blocks used)

WEIGHT         1933           1934           1935           1936

 "3"         100 3 340      100 3 001      105 3 723       (none)

             111 3 299      113 3 226      115 3 804

 "2"         120 2 086      120 2 001      121 2 576

             179 2 245      195 2 243      198 2 776

 "1"         202 1 489      200 1 001      200 1 558      106 1 832

             463 1 966      492 1 984      499 1 998      489 1 796

 "2"                                       500 2 542      506 2 900

                                           517 2 168      544 2 405

TOTAL BY CLASS   1933         1934         1935         1936

 "3"            10,960       13,226       10,082       (none)

 "2"            59,160       75,243       93,828       37,506

 "1"           261,478      292,984      299,441      382,965

GRAND TOTAL    331,598      381,453      403,351      420,471

1934 fees and numbers as follows (probably also 1933 and 1935):

3 = Over $20     100-001 - 115-000    (15,000)

2 = $15 to $20   120-001 - 180-000    (60,000)

1 = Under $15    200-001 - 450-000   (250,000)

Ashville Citizen-Times, 11/16/1935:

"There will be only two classes of tags for private automobiles next

year as compared with three in effect at present."

        TRUCK B/1 - B/5         PASSENGER            "FARMER"

1937   120 109 - 180 728    203-124 - 651-086

1938   101 760 - 193 745    200-001 - 656-212

1939   100 128 - 197 018    200-504 - 685-470

1940   101 607 - 186 973    201-346 - 704-912

1941   103 560 - 193 550    202-563 - 774-163*     (Began 1942)

1942   103 396 - 195 260    202-014 - 763-759    900-361 - 910-045

1941-55:  1 - 200 = Official, reflective in 1949.

         (Also seen:  6-30-27 #20, 1932 #1, 1933 #3, 1941-44 #2)

1943 TAB   116772 - 516624, 671670, 742753 - 753554 (363181 on Farmer)

1943:  1942 bases ran out about 9/15/1943, so 1941 plates were

       issued until the 1944 plates went on sale in November 1943.

1944-49:  Truck plates appear identical to passenger plates.

          1945 #145-398 and 1946 #157-326 reported in period news

          articles as being truck licenses, and 1946 chart sent to

          20th Century-Fox Studios shows truck as #100-001.  1948

          chart shows truck as #800-001, so number blocks assumed

          as shown below. 

                TRUCK             PASSENGER            "FARMER"

1944      103-017 - 189-401   200-094 - 710-423*  900-112 - 907-506

1945      110-450 - 183-156   200-233 - 702-664   900-353 - 906-664

1946      101-095 - 198-288,  207-644 - 747-644   900-835 - 902-914

          803-109 -

              PASSENGER             TRUCK              "FARMER"

1947      101-965 - 682-269   800-978 - 921-704   975-903 - 983-378

1948      100-186 - 759-765   800-500 - 948-995   975-180 - 982-725

1949      100-635 - 799-769,  802-623 - 956-219   975-015 - 987-317

           W-1865 - W-21549

1950-55   100-001 - 760-000,

           W-1001 - W-99999

BLOCKS        PASSENGER            "TRUCK"           "FARM TRUCK"

1950      100-001 - 760-000   760-001 - 934-363   960-001 - 978-721

1951      100-001 - 760-000   760-001 - 949-522   970-001 - 990-966

1952      100-001 - 750-455   775-676 - 959-529   974-072 - 991-683

1953      100-001 - 750-000   750-001 - 954-107   965-001 - 989-100

1954      100-001 - 739-005   746-888 - 959-423   965-322 - 992-327

1955      100-001 - 745-000   745-001 - 965-000   965-001 - 997-047

W-1001 = Raleigh Mail Order 1950.

R = Raleigh Mail Order (R-1001 - R-51000 in 1954).

Non-Pass. Prefixes:  B,C,D,F,H,J,K,L,M,P,S,T,U,Y,Z.

  1950        1951        1952        1953        1954        1955

 W-99129     W-95956     W-89979     W-95955     W-98588     W-97063

 R-73930     R-96720     R-98921     R-98602     R-88945     R-97804

             N-41173     N-78937     N-97636     N-98454     N-85559

                                     X-45897     X-97352     X-94982

                                                             A-98918

                                                             V-21954

(831,059)   (890,849)   (915,292)   (984,090) (1,018,344) (1,135,280)

1956-72       Full series:  A-1 - A-9999, AA-1 - AZ-9999, B-1, etc.

              1000 series:  A-1 - A-1000, AA-1 - AZ-1000, B-1, etc.

No G,I,O,Q used.  No J,P used in 1st position, but P seen 1960-65,

PP seen 1966-68; assumed to be annual Public/Permanent plates.

1 - 200 without letters = Official.  J = Judicial.

H = Highway 1956.  1957 #H-122, H-6177, 1962 #H-443 seen.

Not on 1963-on charts.  By 1965, H was normal passenger series.

Last U seen:  1965.  No U used 1969-72.

VD recalled 1956, omitted 1969, 1971.

(For known number ranges, see Misc. #1.)

1973    AAA-101 - HVA-166      No G,I,O,Q U used.     (2,680,884 S)

1974    AAA-101 - JBB-499      No G,I,O,Q,U used.     (2,795,390*S)

1975-83 FIRST IN FREEDOM BASE                    No G,I,O,Q,U used.

1975              Type 1       AAA-101 - PMS-842      (4,959,626 S)

4/4/78    "78"    Type 2       PNA-337 - SXY-718        (942,534 S)

1980      "80"    Type 3       SYA-447 - XFR-213      (1,332,984 S)

Jun.81  "JUN 82"  Type 4       XHA-894 - YJZ-644        (433,069 S)

Feb.82  "FEB 83"  Type 5       YKD-658 - ZRZ-999        (506,479 S)

                                                (TOTAL 8,191,851 S)

Description of Types:

Type 1 - Dated "75", with slogan

Type 2 - Undated, no slogan                 (PNA reported as start)

Type 3 - Dated "1980" top, no slogan

Type 4 - Dated "1981" bottom, no slogan     (XHA reported as start)

Type 5 - Dated "1982" bottom, no slogan

1975 AAA-101 - JAY-999 (2,793,193 S) replaced 8/1/1981 to 8/15/1982.

1976 JBA-101 - MYZ-999 (1,548,078 S) replaced by March 1986.

1982 Type 5 replaced by September 1991, although some still seen.

1983-2008 BLUE FIRST IN FLIGHT BASE             No G,I,O,Q,U used.*

Apr.82  "APR 83"  Type 1       ZSA-101 -  ZZZ-999       (132,153 S)

Apr.82  "APR 83"  Type 1a       AAA-11 -   XFR-12       (725,042 S)

Sep.82  "SEP 83"  Type 1b      AAA-101 -  BKS-627       (560,604 S)

Apr.83  "APR 84"  Type 2       BLK-483 -  DBX-952       (651,346 S)

Apr.84  "APR 85"  Type 1c      DCA-427 -  DTT-375       (258,861 S)

                  Type 2a      DVD-673 -  DVP-650         (8,069 S)

Jun.84  "JUN 85"  Type 1d      DWH-361 -  JAY-692     (1,276,912 S)

                                       (TOTAL 6-FIGURE 2,925,039 S)

Mar.85  "MAR 86"  Type 3      ANA-1001 - ANE-1001        (35,997 S)

Apr.85  "JUL 85"  Type 4      ANH-2434 - KSS-4936    (All 7-figure

Apr.97   "4-98"   Type 5      KNN-5503 - LZC-3081     types overlap

                  Type 6      LZA-9046 - MWY-4182     except 7/8)

Jan.00   "1-01"   Type 7      MTT-1840 - NRE-6213

        "11-01"   Type 8      NRF-9499 - NZS-6209

                  Type 9      NVN-4691 - PRW-3522

2001              Type 10     PRD-2333 - PZY-9265

Aug.02            Type 11     PZM-4117 - RWX-1001    (7-FIGURE

                  Type 12     RWV-9999 - WTF-1973     31,787,379 S)

                                         (GRAND TOTAL 34,712,418 S)

Description of Types:

Type 1 - Reflective, wide 1956-82 dies          (DCA rep. as start)

Type 2 - Non-reflective, wide 1956-82 dies      (BLH rep. as start)

Type 3 - Reflective, narrow dies, short hyphen, close spacing

Type 4 - As Type 3, but long dash, wide spacing, no triangles (3M)

Type 5 - As Type 4, but triangles added beneath upper holes,

         "97" in lower corners                (Avery)

Type 6 - As Type 5, but "98" in lower corners (Avery)

Type 7 - As Type 5, but "99" in lower corners (Avery)

Type 8 - As Type 4, but "99" hologram (3M)

Type 9 - As Type 4, but "00" hologram

Type 10 - As Type 4 but "01" hologram

Type 11 - As Type 4, but "02" hologram

Type 12 - As Type 4, but "03" hologram

*OBX-1001 - OBX-9999 specially issued 12/22/1999 to 7/25/2000,

"1-01", for Dare County (Outer Banks), for $20 extra annually.

OBX-101 - OBX-999 seen on wide 6-digit dies.

OBX-01 - OBX-0999 added 8/14/2000, "8-01".

OBX10000 - OBX99999 added starting 3/7/2006 (still blue).

OBX0001A issued 5/13/2019.

OBX0129A = Flight, OBX0001B = Freedom, OBX0001C = In God We Trust.

As of 2020, no extra fee if issued in Dare county; $30 extra otherwise.

Type 1 issued for Mail Order.

Type 1a uses numbers 11 - 100 only; issued at branch offices.

Types 1b, 2, 1c, 2a and 1d issued to new registrations only.

Types 3-12:  No A-M used in 2nd position.  FVA-FZZ omitted.

             KXK recalled.  UNC-1962 seen.

All 5-6-figure plates and 7-figure plates up to HZZ-9999 scheduled

to be replaced by the end of July 2008.

2008-11 RED FIRST IN FLIGHT BASE                 No G,I,O,Q,U used.

4/16/07  "1 08"               WTF-1995 - ZND-9976     (4,903,438 S)

Numbering system continues from previous base.  XXX series recalled

after about 1,000 issued; all counted in total.

2010-23 NEW BLUE FIRST IN FLIGHT BASE            No G,I,O,Q,U used.

2010     "6 10" Type 1        ZNE-1005 - ZZZ-9999     (1,853,790 S)

11/16/11 "3 12" Type 1a       AAA-1001 - KAT-3855    (16,956,971 S)

                                               (TOTAL 18,810,761 S)

Type 1a:  No N-Z used in 2nd position.

New die for "bubble 8" began March 2021, "03-22", by JCE-8550.

(JBJ-1867 has old "equal 8")

2016-23 FIRST IN FREEDOM BASE                    No G,I,O,Q,U used.

7/1/15  "07-16"               PAA-1001 - RDM-8871     (2,842,556 S)

After PMZ, RAA-RMZ, etc.

2020-23 IN GOD WE TRUST BASE                     No G,I,O,Q,U used.

7/1/19  "07-20"               TAA-1001 - TMX-8473     (2,059,245 S)

After TMZ, VAA-VMZ, etc.